Economy & Business - September 2004

Officials said that the hurricane did little damage to the tourism industry. Manuel Marrero, the tourism minister, said that the tourism industry had only be lightly touched by the storm. The main effect of the hurricane had been the closing of Havana airport for a couple of days just before the storm passed across the island on 13 September. He said that when the hurricane hit, there were over 30,000 tourists on the island of whom 4,324 had to be evacuated. 

Marrero still expects the island to play host to 2m tourists this year. This is despite the new US regulations restricting visits by Cuban Americans to the island. The government has been complaining that these measures are also having a major effect on the vital remittance business. Official figures show that since the new US measures to restrict visits by Cuban Americans to Cuba were implemented in June, the number of such visitors has fallen by 25%. 

The government is still aiming for 2m tourists this year: by the end of August 1.45m people had visited the island. The tourism ministry is now under the control of Raúl Castro, the president's brother and armed forces minister. A series of scandals forced out the previous tourism minister.

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